Parents can help their children begin to learn a language in the comfort of home using the Library’s subscription to the award winning Little Pim language learning series. Parents and kids alike enjoy Little Pim because it uses the entertainment immersion method, an online, engaging and interactive way to learn.

Through the library, we offer ten different languages through Little Pim: Russian, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew, English, Spanish and French.

Oh, and for you grownups that want to learn a language, we offer Mango Languages as an online product in addition to the hundreds of language learning resources we have ready for check out on site.

Posted by Lindy, a second floor librarian

In addition to the wide selection of computer programming books in our collection, our Learning Express database has software tutorials on Adobe Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator and Photoshop (and all the Microsoft applications plus tutorials on the Windows and Mac operating systems).

Lastly, the Interwebs has many free and fabulous educational resources for learning code. My two favorites:

CodeAcademy
Sign up for CodeYear 2012 for a weekly coding lesson, sent directly to your email.

w3 Schools Online Tutorials
Access free tutorials on HTML, CSS, SQL, Javascript, PHP and XML.

Happy Learning!

Posted by Lindy, a second floor librarian

Image credit: bgolub

Corvallis has long been on the forefront of environmental and sustainability initiatives and the library is a proud partner in that effort. As such, we are happy to share that we have a new database this year: Global Reference on the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources (GREENR). GREENR offers authoritative, current and expansive content focused on environment and sustainability topics.

GREENR is perfect for researchers, students, professionals and community members who are interested in environmental topics. For example:

• Students will find resources covering science, history and politics.
• Professionals will find data on law, economics, politics, resource management and other issues tied to business success.
• Job seekers will learn about the education required to enter the green-collar marketplace.
• General patrons will find timely information on wide-interest topics like food safety and public transportation.

GREENR is truly a one-stop site, combining a wealth of resources, including news, unique commentary, audio, video, primary source documents, and case study statistics. Navigating GREENR is easy because of its web-like interface, making it intuitive and user-friendly. New information is added daily, making it a great place to research timely information and current hot topics.

One particularly unique feature of GREENR is its country, topic/issue, and organization portals, which cover 160 nations, over 150 different topics and issues (from animal welfare to solar energy), and overviews and links to major environmental international associations (from Greenpeace to the World Wildlife Fund).

Like all of our databases*, GREENR is accessible via an Internet connection, with your library card, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If you would like to give it a try, access it from our A to Z database page.

Books, Videos, and other resources:

In addition to GREENR, we carry a wide variety of resources on sustainability and the environment. Additional searching in our catalog for key words such as solar power, recycling,  green living, environmental protection will retrieve great resources.

Local Resources:

Interested in getting involved in sustainability issues in your local community? Check out the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition and Corvallis Independent Business Alliance for more information.

If you have questions about GREENR or any of our other resources, please feel free to contact a librarian via email or phone at askalibrarian@ci.corvallis.or.us or (541) 766-6793.

* Exception: Ancestry.com is only accessible in the library.

If you’re bummed you missed the fall opportunity, have no worries. Stanford opened up sixteen more courses that start this month! To get started with a class, click on the course link below, sign up with your email, and join tens of thousands of other students from around the globe!

• Software as Service
• Computer Science 101
• Machine Learning
• Cyptography
• Natural Language Processing
• Human Computer Interaction
• Design and Analysis of Algorithms I
• Probabilistic Graphic Models
• Computer Security
• Game Theory
• Technology Entrepreneurship
• Lean Launchpad
• Anatomy
• Making Green Buildings
• Information Theory
• Model Thinking 

To read more about how the courses work, The Stanford University News explained it in their August 2011 blog post.

Posted by Lindy, a second floor librarian

If you aren’t familiar with opencourseware (OCW), it is a term applied to course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the internet. MIT is a leader in this area, having opened up many of their courses in 2002 and expanding ever since to include access to syllabi, exams, assignments and solutions. MIT Opencourseware, now in its 10th year, includes nearly 2,100 MIT courses and has been used by more than 100 million people.

Reading the article above made me think about other free, awesome educational websites that are open to anyone, any time. I’d like to share them with you!

Kahn Academy: The Kahn Academy has a library of over 2,700 videos and 268 practice exercises “covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history.” Their mission is to help people learn what they want, when they want, at their own pace. The Kahn Academy is a great place for short, informative videos on old-school subjects (geometry, anyone?) to current, timely issues (can someone please break down mortgage-backed securities please?) The Kahn Academy videos work for people of all ages, with videos covering developmental math through organic chemistry. Named one of Time’s Top 50 websites of 2011, I highly recommend them.

Academic Earth: Academic Earth was founded with a goal of extending high-quality online learning opportunities to people around the globe. Academic Earth provides videos of college-level lectures from professors from many top universities in the US (e.g., Yale, Harvard, Stanford, NYU), covering over 30  subjects (from art & architecture to writing). AE was one of Time Magazine’s Top 50 websites in 2009.

OpenCulture: Although not an opencourseware site, they do provide links to many open courses. Dubbing themselves as having “the best free cultural and educational media on the web,” they update daily with informative, educational material and serve as a one-stop-shop for such things. Beyond their comprehensive link to free courses, they also offer links to free audio books, textbooks, movies, and language lessons. (Scroll past the advertisements to get to the good stuff).

Opencourseware Search: The OCW search engine searches for open courses over 10 universities. This can help you shop for courses in one place.

To find more open courses at other universities (beyond what the OCW search engine retrieves), try this little search in the Google machine: “opencourseware site:.edu” (without the quotes), and all sorts of goodies from various universities will be retrieved — Tufts, Notre Dame, the University of Utah, the University of California, Irvine, Harvard, John Hopkins School of Public Health, and many more.

The opencourseware movement is changing the way education is accessed, providing an opportunity to get educated for free, any time, any place, from excellent teachers!

Posted by Lindy, a second floor librarian.

Image credit: ralph and jenny

Take a look around the Booklist site (you’ll need to enter your library card to access it from home) where you’ll find other great lists such as Top 10 Food Books 2011 and the monthly High Demand Hot List .  This is a great database which we librarians use as one of our selection tools.  We think you’ll enjoy it too for getting reading suggestions.  The library has a subscription so it’s free to you with your library card.

You’ll find Booklist listed alphabetically under the A-Z list on our “Research” page along with all our other subscription databases.

Let us know what you think of Booklist!

Posted by Alex, a second floor librarian

For those of you who will be shopping for holiday gifts and want to be informed about the best deals and products, we have a wonderful Consumer Information subject guide dedicated to keeping you informed.

Our guide has links to Consumer Reports, one of our most popular databases. Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is “to work for a fair, just and safe marketplace.” They buy and test all of the products in their own lab, with trained specialists. They don’t take money for advertisements, and thus aren’t influenced by anyone. Shoppers can count on Consumer Reports as an authoritative, trustworthy source.

Through Consumer Reports, you can access a massive wealth of consumer information electronically, such as:

• Unbiased product ratings and reviews on thousands of products, including cars, electronics, home and garden, baby and kid products and more

• What products are considered the best buys and deals and which are the worst product performers

• Product comparisons, side-by-side

• Information on consumer protection, personal finance and health

In addition to the electronic resource, we have copies of the magazine for check out.

Happy Thanksgiving! (And for those of you who dare to brave the cold, wind and rain for cheap retail deals and thrills this Friday… best of luck to you!)

Posted by Lindy, a second floor librarian

“In Flanders Fields”
by Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

from “In Flanders Fields and Other Poems” by John McCrae

Thanks Veterans!

Posted by Christopher, a second floor librarian.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Take a bite out of the Twilight series by sinking your teeth into this literary work, very loosely based on the life of Vlad the Impaler. Listen to the dramatized LibriVox audio book.

Fall Of The House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe
A classic Poe short story. The quintessential Gothic, haunted house tale! Watch the surrealist silent film from 1928.

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Be afraid of doctors that keep to themselves… Listen to the LibriVox audio book.

The Monkey’s Paw by William Wymark Jacobs
Beware of what you wish for in this short story. Listen to a Radio Drama of the story.

Shapes in the fire by M. P. Shiel
Shiel was an early master of the supernatural novel. This is a fine collection of creepy short stories. My favorite is Vaila. In addition, I’d recommend the PDF version for the drawings and original formatting.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
A story of split personality and a potion that brings out the worst in a certain benevolent Doctor. Listen to the LibriVox audio book.

The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (contained in the Collected Works of Poe)
Another great Poe short story. “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this.”  Listen to this and several other Poe classics.

Posted by Christopher, a spooky second floor librarian.

Once you borrow an ereader, you will need something to read. We include some public domain classics on the device, but why not make a foray into Library2Go?

Be sure to log in before you search for an ebook. This way you will not only see all that is offered statewide (and available to you) but also the ebooks that we have added to the system just for Corvallis-Benton County library users.

As of right now, we have 12,421 ebooks and the list grows by the day. Don’t forget that we also offer audiobooks! We have 13,148 titles right now.

I just got back from an ereaders conference and from what I saw, this holiday season should be lots of fun. Many new ereaders and display technologies will soon be available and the prices keep dropping! I have already been seeing ereaders for under $100 and with a CBCPL library card you can get ebooks at no additional charge!

If you plan on purchasing an ereader, be sure it is on the compatible devices list for OverDrive (our source for Library2Go ebooks). As always, check our ebooks page for the latest news.

Posted by Christopher, a second floor librarian